


Coffee and Paint

by aWildLu



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Art Student Zuko, Blind Character, F/M, Fluff and Humor, Gen, Getting to Know Each Other, Guide dog Appa, Kissing, Romeo and Juliet References, Shakespeare Quotations, Theatre, Toph's A+ way of showing affection, Zuko is a dork, bunch of characters also mentioned, if you can call it references, poor Zuko just went through a breakup, there's some christmas
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-27
Updated: 2019-05-27
Packaged: 2020-03-20 14:24:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,833
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18994396
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aWildLu/pseuds/aWildLu
Summary: "What a dramatic romance... The art major that fell in love with the blind girl!" Katara exclaimed in a dreamy voice."Urgh, shut up! Everyone knows you love cheesy romance novels!"Or:The guy who actually kissed Toph instead of just stage kissing her may not actually be so bad.





	Coffee and Paint

**Author's Note:**

> My first ever upload here!
> 
> I can't believe I actually wrote this two years ago.
> 
> Crossposted on FFN
> 
> Enjoy!

The door creaked when she opened it, only worsening her headache. She had been up all night working on a project for the class that, how she'd been informed just this morning, would be canceled. _Sigh_... College. Appa, her guide dog, was the only thing keeping her from falling asleep in the middle of the hallway. It was only Monday morning, but the week didn't seem to end. At least she only had few classes that day, and though she dreaded them.

  
"Late again, Miss Beifong?" This teacher, she swore, hated her. It wasn't even one minute after the beginning of class. "Please take your seat!" he (probably) gestured to an empty chair in one of the first rows.

  
"Yeah, yeah, whatever..."

  
Giving Appa directions to look for a place to sit, preferably far away from the professor, she readied herself for two hours of drama class. It was one of the few things she had chosen herself after her father had put her up for economics major, after all, she was supposed to take over the family business one day. She was a talented actress, after all seeming like the helpless blind girl takes some serious acting.

  
About five minutes into the lecture she zoned out and concentrated on reading the script for today's lesson, the braille version of course. It was a pain in the ass always needing to walk to the library to get a copy of the sheets for the next day because that was where the only Braille printer of the whole campus was located.

  
About ten minutes later someone knocked at the door.Then a young man spoke, "Sorry, I'm late. I was-" The poor guy was interrupted by the professor's loud voice.

  
"Great! Now we have the people for the kiss scene! Please, Mister" he looked down at his paper, "Sozin. You can come down here right away and please collect Miss Beifong on your way."

  
Toph's head shot up. She hadn't even noticed that he had finished his speech about spirits know what. Standing up, she waited for the guy to come near so that she could grab his arm. She didn't like being led by people. They'd always forget to tell her when something was on the ground and she would fall over it because they didn't even notice things on the ground.

  
The guy's leather jacket brushed her shoulder and she grabbed his elbow. He towered a little less than a foot over her, granted she wasn't very tall. He smelled like smoke and coffee. A comfortable mix this early. Going over her text in her head, she let herself be dragged down towards the front. Today's script was a part of Romeo and Juliet in a more modern tongue. They now were supposed to act out act 1, scene 5, a kiss.

  
_Mister Sozin_ held his script in one hand, with the other he took hers and started citing his lines.

  
" _Your hand is like a holy place that my hand is unworthy to visit. If you're offended by the touch of my hand, my two lips are standing here like blushing pilgrims, ready to make things better with a kiss._ "  
Toph recalled her own lines. She was impressed by the guy's talent. He seemed to be really absorbed by his role already.

  
" _Good pilgrim, you don't give yourself enough credit. By holding my hand you show polite devotion. After all, pilgrims touch the hands of statues of saints. Holding one palm against another is like a kiss._ "

  
She probably wouldn't get further without making a lot of mistakes. Remembering a short piece of script was easy enough, but a whole scene in just a minute? That was a bit much at once.

  
" _Don't saints and pilgrims have lips too?_ "

  
Of course, he could just read his lines off the paper. If she had that possibility she would use it too. Too bad she didn't have it. You simply needed at least one hand to get this scene right and reading a Braille text required two hands.

  
" _Yes, pilgrim - they have lips that they're supposed to pray with._ "

  
Ok, so she just had to react to what he said and try to be as close to the script as possible.

  
" _Well then, saint, let lips do what hands do. I'm praying for you to kiss me. Please grant my prayer so my faith doesn't turn to despair._ "

  
He let go of her hand and cupped her face with his left hand. For a moment she couldn't breathe. This was not in the script.

  
" _Saints don't move, even when they grant prayers._ "

  
He seemed to just send the lines he read into her head to say them. Thank the spirits, she wasn't going to get humiliated. His face was suddenly in front of hers and she could feel his breath on her cheeks. Toph hoped she wasn't blushing.

  
" _Then don't move while I act out my prayer._ "

  
He leaned down and kissed her gently. Not a stage kiss. A real kiss. Now she was blushing. Did this idiot even know what he was doing? Apparently not. Or was it a mistake? Probably not. She was often told that she was pretty and guys would love to be with her. She always declined and said she wasn't interested in boys yet. But this, this felt strangely good. Unbeknown to her inner turmoil he kept going.

  
" _Now my sin has been taken from my lips by yours_."

  
" _Then do my lips now have the sin they took from yours?_ "

  
She wasn't even thinking now. It just seemed like the most reasonable reply... for whatever reason. Presumably, she was just absorbed by her thoughts and her subconscious had just taken over the role of Juliet to save her from making this day a total fuck up.

  
" _Sin from my lips? You encourage crime with your sweetness. Give me my sin back._ "

  
And then he let the paper fall to the ground to kiss her again. Her mind was still racing and she was desperately trying not to give in and punch him in the face or shove him away, for the sake of their both grades and dignity.

  
After this, she seemed to float back to her seat. Never had she thought would a guy feel this good on her skin. It wasn't the guy himself, rather the way he kissed her. He tasted like chocolate and paint. Probably an art student, she thought.

  
After the class was over - Toph really hadn't paid attention anymore - she waited until the professor left and whispered to Appa, "Hey, buddy, can you find that guy with the leather jacket from before?" The dog, who had been sleeping peacefully for the last hour or so, rose from his place under her desk and began to analyze the room. He quietly barked when he spotted the boy a few desks further.

  
"Great!" Toph exclaimed as quietly as her comrade and took the harness to make her way over there and piss the boy off.

  
"The fuck was that, dude?!" she exclaimed loudly. She didn't care if she got weird looks.

  
"What do you mean?" Did he seriously not know? It was pretty hard to miss when you kiss someone, Toph thought.

  
"You kissed me down there! Not just some stage shit. That was a real kiss," she hissed. She turned her head up, right to the boy's face. Sokka had once told her, that for someone blind she had the creepy talent of making eye contact with people when she was pissed. And she hoped it worked. Over the lesson, her feeling of astonishment had turned to anger. Her first kiss wasn't supposed to be like that. Not in class, not with some stranger, and not in the place of a stage kiss in front of everyone.

  
He didn't say anything at first. Then, "Sorry, I didn't mean to. My girlfriend just broke up with me this morning and-"

  
"Whatever. Save me the sob story of your horrible morning!" she rudely interrupted and was about to rant some more when he all of a sudden started talking again, "Could I invite you for lunch to make it up to you?"

  
"What?" What? Was he really asking her out for lunch after something like that? Her dignity wanted to say no, but her stomach was faster to accept the invitation by growling loudly.

  
"I'm taking that as a yes", he grinned smugly and finished packing up his notes. "I'm Zuko, by the way."

  
"Toph," she replied shortly. She still wanted to be pissed at him, but there was his heavenly smell of coffee again. How she would love a nice, warm cup of coffee right now.  
Whatever happened in the next one and a half hours, she didn't know. She was too tired to think and had no time to even get a small sip of caffeine.

* * *

 

Now here she stood, in front of the classroom they had met in, waiting for anything to happen. It was twenty to twelve and Zuko was already ten minutes late. Had he forgotten? Maybe. Just as she wanted to leave, his familiar odor appeared somewhere in the room and a strong hand grabbed her shoulder. Toph let out a short squeak and whirled around to punch him. Surprisingly, he dodged.

  
"The fuck?!" she exclaimed, "Never heard of greeting someone before you sneak up on them?"

  
"Well, usually you don't greet people before you sneak up on them, that's kinda the whole point of sneaking up," Zuko replied grinning. "Let's go and eat. I know a great take away in the area. They have the best Chinese food!"

  
Twenty minutes later they sat in a meadow on campus.

  
"So, like... How blind are you?" he asked hoping he didn't sound offensive.

  
"I'm as blind as a badgermole in daylight."

  
"What's... what's a badgermole?" He was confused. A fusion between a badger and a mole possibly? That didn't sound very real. And how blind was such a creature? Is it completely blind? Can it see light? Badgers can see. So a badgermole should be able to see too, right?

  
"Badgermoles are fairy tale creatures that can manipulate all kinds of earth and stone. And they're completely blind. No light, no shapes, no colors, no nothing. I really like them," Toph explained.

  
"Fairy tales, huh? Didn't think you would be the kind of person that likes fairy tales," Zuko taunted with a slight laugh. He liked this girl. She wasn't like the others and especially, she wasn't like Mai. It was good to not be around someone who constantly reminded him of his former girlfriend. His sister and her girlfriend would only talk about what he did wrong and why he didn't deserve her anyway. Toph didn't care for his feelings though. She just talked about whatever came to her mind, food, people, music, animals and occasionally she would rant about her roommate, Kara, or whatever she was called.

* * *

 

It was after both their classes had ended that they met again. Zuko had found out that she liked playing sports but wasn't allowed to back with her parents. So he took the chance and offered to do something athletic after classes. They were walking to the park nearby and he was nervously fidgeting with a basketball he had borrowed from his roommate. In his short mental breakdown, he had stupidly decided to take a basketball. A basketball, for a game that required seeing the ball and the hoop to play, not to mention the enemy player.

  
Toph looked way fitter now. The dark circles under her eyes were nearly gone. Either she had had time to put on some heavy makeup - which was rather unlikely- or she had slept through most of her classes.

  
Toph didn't bring Appa this time. She was holding onto Zuko's elbow, like she did back that morning. In her other hand she held the cane, letting it point behind them. Somehow, he thought, it wasn't too bad that he had accidentally kissed her. Zuko didn't think he had ever been so lucky in the circumstances. Misfortune he had much. Fifteen years ago when his mother left, five years later when he got his scar and now that Mai left him, he would never have another chance with any girl ever again. Who wanted a disfigured guy as their boyfriend? If he developed feelings for Toph now, would she be willing to...? She didn't know about his scar, and if he didn't tell her, she maybe wouldn't find out. But that was absurd, he'd just met her. He shouldn't be thinking about something like that.

  
"How far is it?"

  
The question ended his train of thought. "Huh?"

  
"You're going deaf now? I asked how far it is 'till we're there," Toph replied slightly annoyed.

  
"Oh, um... we're almost there." Why was he suddenly so nervous? Probably because she would beat him for his stupid idea. After all, she had told him about her countless victories in beating up stupid people.

  
In front of them was now a small street basketball field. He led her right in front of the hoop, where she put the cane on the floor and handed her the ball. He wanted to ask if it was okay for her if he told her where to throw. Instead, he asked, "Do you like ball games?"

  
"Not many... though, I play football now and again with Sokka," she answered and added after a few seconds, "Works mostly because he taped a little bell to the ball and someone's constantly screaming directions at me." An unenthused laugh escaped her and Zuko facepalmed for his idiocy of even asking. But she already pulled him out of his thoughts.

  
"So, where is the stupid hoop?"

  
"Huh? Oh, it's- it's right in front of you, about 10" above the ground and 12" in front of you." He was surprised that she just asked. Would it have been insensitive if he had just given her the directions without her asking?

  
Toph threw the ball. It hit the backboard and fell to the ground, where it jumped a few times and rolled away.

  
"Did I make it?" She sounded so excited. Zuko didn't want to disappoint her.

  
"Y-yeah, you did it!" It was a lie but hopefully, she wouldn't pick up on it. His sister was always the better liar, but maybe, just maybe, he sounded convincing just this once.

  
"You're lying," she stated. It was a statement, not an accusation. There was no negativity.

  
"Wha- No, no, I'm no-"He wanted to defend himself. If she had already picked up on it, maybe he could at least explain why he did it. Or would she get mad? He didn't want her to be mad at him. He had finally met someone who wouldn't bother him or have prejudices about his scar.

  
"You are! I can hear it in your voice, Sparky!" His defense was like wiped away, like it had never even been there.

  
"Sparky?" he asked instead of his perfectly ineloquent explanation. He was kind of glad over this distraction. Maybe he managed to change the subject over this.

  
"Everybody gets a nickname, Sparky. Everybody gets a nickname," she answered in a sing-song voice. She said it with a determination as though it was completely normal to give people you just met nicknames. Maybe for her, it was. Sparky... It was, to be fair, rather cute.

* * *

 

Three weeks later the two were nearly inseparable. They met every lunch break and sometimes after classes to study in the library. Drama class was the only one they shared and so they always took seats next to each other. Zuko had grown rather fond of his new friend.

  
Toph had fallen asleep shortly after the first quarter of the lesson. Apparently, she always did her projects last minute, Sunday nights. She was lying rather ungracefully on her desk, one arm stretched out over the far end, the other under her head. She was facing Zuko and saliva was running down the corner of her mouth. Appa was lying at her feet, sleeping peacefully as well.  Zuko had decided to sketch her. Drawing was the only thing he was remotely good at in his opinion. That was why he wanted to major in art. On his paper was currently the image of a sleeping girl, her hair all over the place, although his model had it pulled up in a messy bun, her bangs hiding her clouded eyes. He had only briefly taken a look at them when she played with her hair while reciting her lines to him one afternoon. Maybe he could show it to- No, that was stupid, he scolded himself. Toph was blind, she couldn't look at his drawing. In a way it was sad, but it didn't seem to bother her. He had told her about some of his drawings, of course. She had paid close attention every time, maybe because that was her only way of perceiving art. Or she only did it because he was her friend? Though, she didn't seem like the kind of person to listen to things she wasn't interested in, no matter if it was important to someone else. She was so straight forward, so blunt and sarcastic. The complete opposite of his drawing.

  
But she just seemed so peaceful when she slept. She didn't seem like the person she was when awake. It was a mystery to him, how two people who seemed so different could be one and the same person. For now, he decided, he would definitely keep this drawing in his notebook and look at it whenever he needed a reminder that deep down behind that hard exterior Toph was still a girl.

* * *

 

Toph was stalking Zuko's social media. Thank you, FaceBook for being so accessible with screen reader. After she had finally found out the name of his account she took the opportunity and found out as much as possible. Unfortunately he hadn't added image descriptions which made it impossible for her to find out about around 50% of his posts. _Dammit!_

  
Zuko didn't talk much about himself, more so he talked about his art. He described his pictures to her and his inspirations. Most of them were about death, misfortune or honor. He seemed to have a weird obsession with his honor and something called "The Avatar", apparently some kind of award for artists. But even in his FaceBook posts he didn't shut up about his precious honor.

  
" _I thought I had lost my honor, and that somehow my father could return it to me. But I know now that no one can give you your honor. It's something you earn for yourself by choosing to do what's right_."

  
Yeah, he was definitely obsessed with it. Well, it was, in a way, the same she was pretty much obsessed with doing as much as she could on her own, her independence. Though she didn't make countless posts about it.

  
Zuko came from a pretty messed up family. He had an abusive father, a psychopathic sister and his mother had disappeared. He never had real parental love, or at least not much. To a degree, Toph could relate. Her parents were either always on business trips and left her alone with the housemaids and servants or they were there but too busy with other work. They would always insist she had enough people around her and that she shouldn't feel lonely. Lao's employees would always keep her company, but it wasn't the same as having friends or parents. She had long since stopped to refer to her parents as mother and father or mom and dad. They were strangers, Lao and Poppy.

  
But they could relate in more ways than that. They were both sarcastic and would do anything to reach their goals. They cared for friends a great deal, although they didn't show it in the way others would. They both weren't perfect straight-A-students and struggled to keep their grades up, but Zuko cared a lot more about them than Toph and would study out of self-discipline. In some things they complemented each other - if he needed help with something, she would give him advice, no matter how stupid the matter was. He was the only one who actually took notice of things on the ground and would warn her of low hanging branches. He had never let her fall up until now. His height matched hers perfectly to lean on him. And he'd probably be the perfect big spoon and his hair was really soft. It hung into his face and was sometimes all over the place. He sounded sometimes so insecure and Toph just wanted to hug him, which was very un-Toph-like. She would punch people. But hug them? Maybe she liked him just a little more than her other friends.

  
She wondered when she had started thinking about Zuko in such a way. They were just friends and he was probably really popular with girls. His rough voice and nice, sometimes awkward personality and his dreamy scent of dried paint and smoke. On Monday mornings he would smell more like coffee instead of dried paint. Zuko had recently started to stumble over his words more and more around her. Was she making him uncomfortable all of a sudden? Though, she had noticed this behavior when Sokka was around Suki as well and everyone knew he had a giant crush on her. Maybe Zuko liked Toph too? No, it was absurd. Why would he fall for the blind girl? And why did the thought of him not liking her make her sad? It didn't make sense. She told herself she wasn't ready for boys yet. She told the boys who asked her out and the friends who asked why she didn't have a boyfriend yet. So why should she be falling right now? It was probably just a little crush, nothing more. It would pass someday... right?

* * *

 

It didn't pass. And now, three months after they had first met, Toph found herself very self-conscious, standing in front of Zuko in the snow. This December was the coldest in a decade and most of their classes were canceled, so they had decided to get coffee. Christmas break would start soon and she was determined to let him know her feelings before they parted ways for three weeks. She was nervously fumbling with Appa's harness.

  
"So? What is it you wanted to tell me?" Zuko asked innocently. Was he really as clueless as he seemed? Toph thought she had dropped enough hints. Maybe he wasn't such a ladies killer after all... or he was just stupider than he seemed.

  
How do you confess your feeling towards someone you usually don't talk about feelings with? Words wouldn't work for her now, so she switched to the only other way of expressing emotions she knew - she punched him on the arm, hard, and then blushed furiously.

  
"Ouch! What was that for?!" he almost screamed. Now she had fucked up. He was never gonna like her.

  
"It means I like you, idiot!" she screamed back and buried her face in her hands. She had no chance with him. He was too perfect for her.

  
"I know that you like me. Why else would we be frie-... Oh, in that way," Zuko was blushing furiously as well now. In the moment of truth, his brain stopped working and his heart took over.

  
" _Please, don't move while I act out my prayer._ "

  
And then, everything seemed to happen in slow motion. He gently bent down and took her hands in his and then he pressed his lips onto hers. The snow fell around them. There were people rushing to one place or another. But all of that seemed to vanish the moment their lips met. It was just them and their emotions. Nothing needed to be said for this kiss told it all. It wasn't an intensive kiss, but it was emotional and deep. Everything stopped and their heartbeats were in sync. His hands went up to her face and he cupped her cheeks as he broke away. His forehead met hers and he stared into her seafoam colored eyes. And although they couldn't see, they seemed to look right into his eyes.

  
Toph was amazed. How could a single person spark such feelings in her? His kiss tasted like coffee and paint. His lips felt soft on hers, his hands warm on hers when the rest of the world seemed frozen. His breath was warming her numb cheeks as she started to grin like an idiot. She leaned up and pecked his lips, slightly more to the left than intended and snuggled into his warm form.

  
They were still standing in front of the coffee shop and the snow started to melt under their boots and soak their socks in ice cold water. Toph shifted her weight. She was getting cold in spite of Zuko's body warmth. A slight shiver ran down her spine as the boy put his hands around her. One hand on her lower back, the other on the back of her head. She breathed in his scent and sighed in content. She could stay like that forever.

  
Unfortunately, the moment was over way too fast as Zuko broke their embrace and pecked her on the lips. "So, does this mean we're... official?" he asked smoothly.

  
"I guess it does," Toph replied still in a daze. Appa barked contently as though to show his approval of their decision.

* * *

 

The last day before Christmas break the newly found couple spend together in Toph's dorm. She was lying on the couch upside down, her feet dangling over the backrest, her head hanging from the seat. Zuko sat on the ground, his head was right next to hers, a sketchbook on his lap. He was drawing another picture of Toph. This time under the big Christmas tree on the town square. The drawn Toph had a little mustache of chocolate cream and a hot chocolate in her gloved hands. His inspiration was their previous trip to the local Christmas fair this morning.

  
It had started snowing furiously so they had decided to leave and find shelter in the little apartment. The couple had yet to tell their roommates about their new relationship. Toph had decided today was the perfect opportunity to tell Katara. Only that said girl hadn't shown up yet.

  
Suddenly the lock clicked and Toph sat up... well, as up as you can get when you're upside down on a sofa. Zuko looked up as well. He hadn't even noticed the sound. The door opened and revealed a young woman with dark skin and a blue parka. She was covered in snow and looked ready to behead anyone who even looked at her. She took her boots off and marched right towards the bathroom. One second later the bathroom door slammed shut and an unpleasant grunt escaped the little room.

  
"Hi, to you too, Sweetness!" Toph barked in the direction her roommate had just disappeared in.

  
"Is she... always like that?" Zuko dared to ask after a moment of uncomfortable silence. He suddenly wasn't so sure about doing this anymore.

  
"Nah, only when she's pissed," Toph said shrugging. The possibility of being beheaded didn't seem to cross her mind. The girl seemed as careless as ever, no hint of anxiety in her voice or on her face.

  
When Katara left the bathroom a few minutes later with wet hair and fresh clothes, Toph sat up properly and cleared her throat. "So, Sugarqueen, I just wanted to let you know that I joined the club of people who were stupid enough to approve of a relationship. May I introduce you to my boyfriend, Zuko," she made a dramatic hand gesture in the aforementioned boyfriend's general direction, almost hitting him in the process. "He's an art major in case you wondered."

  
Katara sighed and leaned against the fridge hugging herself. "What a dramatic romance... The art major that fell in love with the blind girl!" she exclaimed in a dreamy voice.

  
"Urgh, shut up! Everyone knows you love cheesy romance novels!" Toph threw a pillow in the direction of the fridge only to be lectured by Katara who had moved to the other side of the room in the meantime, "I'm over here."

  
Out of pillows to throw Toph settled with a grunt and crossed her arms to pout. She looked cute, Zuko thought, even cuter than usual. Though he would not admit it. She would beat him to a pulp. He smiled and surprised his girlfriend - he really loved to call her his girlfriend even in his thoughts, just to remind him that it was true - with a kiss. She shrieked and then melted into the kiss.

  
Zuko chuckled, "I love you."

  
"I love you too."

 


End file.
